The development and use of polymer blends and composites represent a significant advance in plastic material technology through which a product may display desirable characteristics of two or more component plastics. In spite of the continued development of new polymers, blends or composites of several commodity polymers constitute the majority of materials commonly used in plastic products.
Blending polymers yields polymeric composites and polymeric alloys. In alloys, the polymeric constituents are generally compatible in all proportions and form a generally homogeneous blend. Composite constituents are not compatible. In the case of two components, a polymeric matrix exists in which a second polymer (the minor phase constituent) is imbedded in the first, matrix (major phase constituent) polymer.
The minor and major components during common blending operations can take on a variety of shapes. Frequently, the minor phase component becomes dispersed in the form of small droplets. Regardless of the type, the resultant blend displays mechanical properties different than either parent constituent, and the independent properties of the parent constituents may remain effectively unchanged.
Increased understanding of a new process of blending has led to novel and improved composites. It is now understood that fluid particles can be advected along complex paths in simple flows and the motion over time can be chaotic, a behavior know as chaotic advection or as chaotic mixing where the focus is on fluid mixing. Chaotic mixing has served as a useful tool in gaining an understanding of mixing in general. Chaotic motion among fluid elements can be instilled, and subsequently stopped to facilitate study and examination of partially mixed states. Chaotic advection is characterized by recursive stretching and folding of both the major and minor phases. Potential structural changes in composites resulting from the chaotic mixing process have not been considered in terms of their formation of and their role in composites. Generally, interfacial effects have been ignored with most emphasis on mixing rather than on structural development among polymer components. Accordingly, there remains room for improvement in the art particularly as it relates to structures produced in response to or as a product of chaotic advection.